Meet the Director and Fellows

Dr. Tina Thomas has over 20 years of experience working with diverse populations of students in secondary and higher education. She is committed to advocating for and supporting students as they navigate their educational journey and pursue postgraduate aspirations. In addition to directing the MMUF program, she serves as the assistant director of the Office of Distinguished and Postgraduate Studies (ODPS). In this role, she provides individual coaching for UT students and alumni applying for prestigious postbaccalaureate scholarships. Prior to joining the UT community, Dr. Thomas worked at the Pennsylvania State University in various roles including the director for diversity and inclusion initiatives for the College of Health and Human Development, and the academic program coordinator for the Millennium Scholars program as well as the Student Support Services TRiO program. She provided academic success and postgraduate education coaching to undergraduate and graduate students, coordinated recruitment and retention programming, provided guidance for faculty and staff on inclusion and equity matters, and collaborated with internal and external stakeholders.

Alexandra Nichole Salazar (she/her/ella) is a PhD student in the Mexican American and Latina/o Studies program at UT Austin. Her research focuses on queer kinships and buried histories from South Texas through oral histories, archiving, and ethnography. She is also the host of Jotxs y Recuerdos, a podcast dedicated to archiving queer stories from the Rio Grande Valley and other borderlands.

Naksh/Nox Acosta-Patel (xe/he/elle) is double majoring in Humanities and Anthropology. Xe is focusing on the intersections of identities, culture, and language through these fields. Xyr studies center anti-colonial workings of thought, revolution, and behavior. Embodied in this work is his research project about the evolution of labels for identities and experiences that are created within the BI/POC Disabled+ community. He chose this path of research because xe has been strongly connected to multic-cultural advocacy through his experiences in a mixed-ethnic neuroqueercrip body. Through xyr work xe hopes to begin making room for divergent experiences and divergent bodyminds within the American social climate and within institutions of power across the country. Xe plans to accomplish this goal by completing xyr PhD under an interdisciplinary field of multi-cultural studies and linguistics.  He is proud to work towards these goals under the mentorship of Dr. Thomas J. Garza.

Pradhitha Boppana (she/her) is an English Honors and Race, Indigeneity, and Migration double major with a minor in Creative Writing. Her research interests include the aesthetic and cultural practices of queer and disabled Asian diaspora. She is particularly interested in poetry as a site of mapping alternative forms of care and seeks to read poetics alongside scholarship of queer of color critique and feminist-of-color disability studies. Under the mentorship of Dr. Alison Kafer, she plans to theorize poetry as theory in practice and explore how bridging creative work and critical studies can occasion new worlds. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in English and creative writing.

Carissa Ceasor (any pronouns) is a Liberal Arts student majoring in Rhetoric and Writing and Black Studies, with a minor in Digital Humanities. His areas of interest are rhetoric, nuerodivergency, and mental illness from a cross-cultural perspective. His research draws on queer and disability rhetoric to examine how definitions of insanity and health - whether physically perceptible or not - influence the movement of power in academic, clinical, and mass-communicative contexts. When not studying, Carissa practices Mandarin and bakes without a recipe. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Rhetoric.

Victoria Canales (she/her) is a Psychology and Plan II Honors double major. Determined to blend these two passions and create meaningful social work, her research interests include mental illness and substance abuse rates among musicians, and DIY and indie music cultures, specifically within disenfranchised groups, throughout modern history. Under the mentorship of Dr. John Morán González, she hopes to develop resources and strategies for targeting mental illness in musicians and help cultivate local music scenes, especially in her hometown of Laredo, TX. She plans to pursue graduate degrees in musicology.

Lesly Chávez (she/her) is pursuing a Sociology major alongside a certificate in Applied Statistical Modeling and Children & Society. Inspired by firsthand experiences, her research interests include educational policy and sociology of education, more particularly, its impact on minority youths. Under the mentorship of Dr. Angela Valenzuela, Lesly plans to examine the impact of educational policies on migrant and indigenous students using qualitative and quantitative data. In the future, she intends to attain a PhD in Sociology and devote her efforts to widening educational opportunities for marginalized children.

Claire Harper is a third-year Sociology, English, and Neuroscience triple major who participates in the Polymathic Scholars Honors Program. Her research interests include the minority stress model, the relationship between minority status and the pathology of mental disorders, intersectionality, and the sociolinguistics of minority dialects. Under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen Russell, Claire intends to analyze the intersectional social determinants of mental health in individuals that hold multiple marginalized identities. Claire intends to pursue joint PhD programs in Sociology and Public Policy, which will enable her to continue exploring her research interests while influencing legislation that affects marginalized communities.

Rachael Hatchett (she/her) is a double major in African and African Diaspora Studies and Radio-Television-Film. Inspired by historical storytelling and filmmaking, her research interests include archival film collecting and preservation, historical fiction genre films/biopics, and the creation of contemporary media intended to expose audiences to historical narratives. Under the mentorship of Dr. Caroline Frick, Rachael plans to analyze the impact of archival images and film on the construction of contemporary media. Specifically, how the collection of past images is utilized to recount history and recreate historical narratives blending the line between historical and fictional. In the future, she intends to pursue a PhD at the intersection of Black history and film, with aspirations to expand film literature and construct accessible web-based/streamable Black film archives.

Alexis Estevane is a Liberal Arts Honors student pursuing both a History and French major. Growing up in love with all things both historical and European, her research interests now center on French History. The intersections of gender, family, and race in everyday life fascinate her. Now, under the guidance of Dr. Julie Hardwick, she studies the lives of black sailors in 18th-century Lorient, France, and their importance to France’s empire. One day, Alexis hopes to continue to research these topics in a History PhD program with a concentration in early modern European studies. Through her research, she hopes to uncover the valuable stories currently hidden in history, and give a voice to those who have been forgotten or lost in history. 

Anjali Krishna is an Art History and English major in Liberal Arts Honors with a minor in French Studies. An avid reader from a young age, her love for stories blossomed into a connection with art history and the study of artists. Anjali’s interest in artist communities drew her to research the New York School and consider their interdisciplinary nature in poetry and painting as well as the interpersonal dynamics between the movement’s informal members. Through archival materials such as personal correspondence and close study of both poetry and painting, Anjali hopes to consider unfolding personal dynamics that manifest themselves in artistic expression. In her free time, you can find her watching tennis or traipsing to new Austin coffee shops on the bus. 

Maya Martinez is a Liberal Arts Honors student pursuing a major in Anthropology and minors in Spanish and Sociology. Under the mentorship of Dr. Iyaxel Cojti Ren, she is interested in post-colonial Maya art and culture, with a focus on the Lacandon Maya of Chiapas, Mexico. Her research explores the intersections of indigeneity, land rights, and sacred space in the context of globalization in the global south. Maya hopes to pursue a Ph.D. program in Cultural Anthropology or Archaeology.

Trinity Ngo is a Liberal Arts Honors and English Honors student pursuing a double major in English and Rhetoric and Writing, alongside a minor in Asian American Studies. With her matrilineal connection to Taiwan’s Nationalist Revolution and her father’s youth spent as a refugee during the Second Indochina War, she has witnessed how cultural memories of war affect Asian American identities. Under the mentorship of Dr. Jeehyun Lim, Trinity aims to survey contemporary literature for its depiction of Asian American women’s mental health to discover how double marginalization, assimilation, and memories of war create a shared cultural consciousness. Following the completion of her undergraduate degree, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in English to further explore the intersection of Asian American identities and literature.

Jeremias Nunez (he/him) is an anthropology student committed to improving access to healthcare and opportunities for underrepresented communities. Having grown up in a predominantly Mexican American community in South Texas, he witnessed the health disparities marginalized communities face. This experience has fueled his interest in researching medical equity and race, particularly in relation to Mexican Americans. Under the mentorship of Dr. Marc Musick, Jeremias will investigate the ways in which social systems intersect with race to impact health outcomes and access to healthcare. Through his research, he hopes to raise awareness of health disparities and contribute to the development of effective interventions and policies that promote health equity. In the future, Jeremias aims to pursue a PhD in Medical Anthropology.

Sally Parampottil (she/her) is a Liberal Arts Honors student pursuing majors in History and English, as well as minors in French and Asian American studies. Prompted by her own experience with dual identities, she wants to study cultural assimilation and national identity in relation to the South Asian diaspora in different countries. Sally enjoys working with mixed methods, taking interdisciplinary approaches to her past and ongoing research projects. With the guidance of Dr. Shiv Ganesh, she will conduct oral histories and work in archives to discover trends in the diaspora and challenge stereotypes of people with South Asian ancestry. Sally hopes to pursue a PhD program in history with a concentration in American history or ethnic studies. 

Breigh Plat is a Plan II Honors and African & African Diaspora Studies double major with a minor in French. Their research interests include the affective encounters of queer bodies of color, diasporic brownness (particularly in the Caribbean), and surveillance in multimedia. Under the mentorship of Dr. Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez, Breigh seeks to place the work of queer theorist Paul Beatriz Preciado in conversation with Martinician poet and author Édouard Glissant to examine how queer bodies of color can interrogate psychoanalysis and its fidelity to identity politics. They plan on pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature.

Daiyan Zakaria is pursuing a degree in Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic with a minor in History. His extensive experience living and studying in Morocco fostered his love of North African literature and history. Under the mentorship of Dr. Benjamin Claude Brower, Daiyan will investigate the role of the Western Sahara dispute on Algero-Moroccan foreign policy in the twentieth century. He hopes to continue his research at the doctoral level by pursuing a dual degree in History and Middle Eastern Studies, exploring, in-depth, the evolution of Algero-Moroccan relations throughout the twentieth century. His research interests include North African Literature, Algerian colonial history, and North African political systems.

Dalia Vazquez (she/her/hers) is a Dallas, Texas native pursuing a Major in Geography and a minor in Informatics. Growing up, she witnessed first-hand the unmet needs and paucity of resources in her low-income community. These experiences have guided her to engage in research focusing on minority communities that are affected by climate change and the lack of sustainable resources near them. She is interested in understanding the attitudes and initiatives that young and elder members of minority communities are embracing in response to such situations. Working in partnership with Dr. Paul Adams, Dalia will analyze the intergenerational communication in the Hispanic communities in central Texas on the topic of climate change and sustainable resources.  Dalia aspires to further continue her education and pursue a PhD in Human Geography with a focus in Mexican American Studies with the intention to better understand the necessities of historically marginalized communities combating environmental racism.